The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-08-13
RICHES OF CORNWALL.

Correspondence Philadelphia, Pa, Times.
Five miles south of Lebanon, Pa, lies the
Cornwall estate, which in wealth and fame
has come to rival its namesake in England.
Inexhaustible millions are promised in the
developments of its resources. The stacks
of its famous furnaces envelop the blue hills
with an incessant volume of sooty smoke.
10 reach them one must pass through an
extended garden.stretch of land peculiarly
striking in the eccentricities of its land
scape. We read of manor seats of historic
England and of romantic domains of Scot,
fish lords and clothe them with the fancy
of poetry and the stateliness of age, little
dreaming that the Cornwall of America
comprises one of the most extensive estates,
unequaled in picturesqueness, in resources
and in romance of history by any in the
world Standing upon the border line one
can look east and west for distance of
nine miles, and on either side of ones sha-
dow extend the Coleman lands. Think of
$4,000 acre estate No less than 5000
acres of this land reach into Berks county.
In one line of view extend the farms of the
richest soil, and from an eminence in one
part of them sweep of thirty miles falls
under the eye-the Swatara Gap and dis
tant points of Dauphin, Schuylkill, Berks
and even Montgomery counties.
ITS EARLY OWNERSHIP.
Around this, as around all accumulated
family fortunes, the widest kind OF ro-
mances and legends have been woven. The
least extravaganza of them can hardly be
true, and the story of a poor boys acct
dental discovery and cheap purchase of
these hills of inexhaustible wealth is all
myth. The chain of title discloses these
facts The original tract, about 1000
acres, was held by John, Thomas and Will
liam Penn They assigned the land to Jos.
Turner He assigned it to William Allen
in 1872. Peter Grub bought 135 acres,
the ore banks, 1877, for f300. In 1876
the original Robert Coleman bought one
sixth Of twO-thirds of the interest. In
1898 he bought the remaining three-sixths
of the two-thirds interest for f29, 100
Finally, in 1898, Robert Coleman held
ive-sixths and II. b. Grubb one-sixth of
thewhole interest. Robert Coleman hailed
from OOTuWail, jJnSiduuJ anu was, upoh
his arrival, considered prominent iron
man. The muniments of title of the Corn
wall estate make volume in themselves.
The transmissions of ownership were ac-
companied not only by mutations of friend
ship. Farms, mansions and other valuable
estates, like tickle fortunes, tossed from one
hand into another in the various branches
of the Grnbb and Coleman families. But
amid all the litigations the ore hills have
remained intact since 1887, when commits
sioners decreed that the ore mines remain
together and undivided as tenantcy in
common. From 1887 to 1847 the several
owners used the ore without accounting.
The supply was deemed inexhaustible.
Surveys estimated the deposit of ore above
water level to be 4O,000,0O0 tons. The
OVERLOOKING abundance of the material in
the hills made the owners magnanimous
toward each other in the selection of mine
holes. Only where the railroads winding
along the hillsides interfered with tempo
rary rights, clash of feeling aud strife en-
sued. 10 1S49 an agreement was made by
the heirs to account the ore at fifty cents
per ton